The 37th International
Festival of Films on Art
A selection of interactive works dedicated to virtual reality and other new media
March 16, 2019
The International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA) is pleased to announce the programme for its 37th edition, which will be held from 19 to 31 March 2019, with a new feature at the heart of its programming: FIFA Experientia. Rich and diversified, this international selection with its multiple accents promises to delight lovers of cinema and art in all its forms thanks to strong and attractive themes such as committed art, art and science, history and culture, music and dance, not to mention the portraits of eloquent and unforgettable artists. This new section of our programme will take place on March 20–24, 2019 at the Espace culturel Georges-Émile-Lapalme at Place des Arts.
Rich and diversified, this international selection with its multiple accents promises to delight lovers of cinema and art…
This year, nearly 200 films from more than 40 countries will be presented. There will also be screenings and events, including a Carte blanche at the Louvre Museum, an Art and Science screening on Artificial Intelligence in partnership with UQÀM, an unpublished collaboration with MOMENTA | Biennale de l’image, a tribute to playwright Larry Tremblay on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Centre du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui, a special screening and talk with Phyllis Lambert to mark the CCA’s 40th anniversary, a Georges Méliès retrospective, and a special architectural focus.
With a mission to reflect a powerful artistic expression, FIFA reflects a diversity of personalities, countries, points of view and genres, as wished by Philippe U. del Drago, Director General and Jacinthe Brisebois, Director of the Festival’s programming. This festival objective is to allow the public to meet internationally renowned artists, from here and abroad, through films that give privileged access to their thoughts and works.
‘This year, nearly 200 films from more than 40 countries will be presented.’
Films of the 37th edition
Reflecting the current and committed artistic production of the contemporary world in the face of growing problems, it is the striking Belgian production Au temps où les Arabes dansaient by the Belgian-Moroccan filmmaker and author Jawad Rhalib, which will open the festival. Awarded the prize for the best documentary Grand Angle and the Audience Prize at the Visions du Réel festival in Nyon, Switzerland, and the Film on Art Prize at the last edition of the Brussels Art Film Festival, this film takes an enlightened look at the struggle that artists of both sexes must wage in societies struggling with religious fundamentalism.

True Warriors (Les guerriers de l’art) by Ronja von Wurmb-Seibel and Niklas Schenck
This profound reflection on the complex future of Arab-Muslim society and the horrors of religious rigorism is also reflected in the shock documentary True Warriors by Ronja von Wurmb-Seibel and Niklas Schenck. This German production recounts the brutal interruption of a play denouncing acts of terrorism by the explosion in the middle of the room of a kamikaze killer: terror will sadly become reality. The courageous accounts of witnesses to this attack provide an understanding of the dilemmas and difficulties faced by artists on Afghan soil.
‘With a mission to reflect a powerful artistic expression, FIFA reflects a diversity of personalities, countries, points of view and genres…’
The documentary Une joie secrète (A Secret Joy) distills this same spirit of resistance by highlighting the project Une minute de danse par jour (One minute of dancing per day) by choreographer Nadia Vadori-Gauthier who, recovering from the shock of the Charlie Hebdo attack, decides to stand and dance, one minute every day, filming herself and sharing her videos on social networks.
The Illegal Film explores the excessively rapid evolution of image production while addressing the whole issue of copyright and privacy in an era of increasingly invasive new technologies.

True Warriors (Les guerriers de l’art) by Ronja von Wurmb-Seibel and Niklas Schenck
This 37th edition also features artists with strong identities, with Paul Wamo, je demande la parole, poet and singer-songwriter of the New Caledonia and Ishkueu Territories art scene, Territoire Femme, which explores the universe of eight female storytellers through their filmed performances and magnificent Innu songs, as part of the Festival de contes et légendes Atalukan de Mashteuiatsh (Pointe-Bleue), in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean.
The films in this edition also cover the themes of Art and Science, notably with Subito – Instant Photography, dealing with Polaroid technology, Shiro Takatani, between nature and technology, the sublime documentary full of poetry, and Histoire et Culture, avec Hitler, Picasso et les Autres (History and Culture, with Hitler, Picasso and the Others), Les guerres de Coco Chanel.
‘Dance lovers will be able to enjoy two filmed shows, a ballet by Angelin Preljocal and a work by famous Swedish choreographer Alexander Ekman filmed at the Opéra Garnier with the dancers of the Opera Ballet.’
Music and dance are on the agenda with, among others, Where are You João Gilberto?, Secret Song, a prodigious reconstruction of the story of the creation of a masterpiece by Austrian composer Alban Berg, Mitten, which describes the creative process of Mitten wir im Leben sind /Bach Cellosuite, a performance by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, and Mitra, a film about the opera composed to honour the resilience of Mitra Kadivar, an Iranian doctor-psychanalyst interned against her will in a mental hospital in Tehran in 2012.
Dance lovers will be able to enjoy two filmed shows, a ballet by Angelin Preljocal, and Play, a work by the famous Swedish choreographer Alexander Ekman, shot at the Opéra Garnier with the dancers of the Opera Ballet. Art is expressed in different forms with, for example, the portrait of the renowned ceramist Jean-Pierre Larocque: charcoal and clay, with Fondations, an incursion into the world of forges represented by the international authority Mathieu Collette and Creations from The Obscure, which celebrates raw art in Japan.

Angèle Dubeau
This year again, many portraits of artists will be honoured, a unique opportunity to meet these artists through their own testimonies or the stories of relatives who tell the stories of the artists’ lives. Also featured will be the personalities of the Italian theatre man Roméo Castellucci, the famous Spanish flamenco dancer La Chana; the Israeli author Etgar Keret and Colette, in literature; Mario Botta and Luc Durand, in architecture; Oskar Kokoshka, Caravaggio, Vasarely, Botero and Munch, in painting and sculpture; Debussy, Leonard Bernstein and Astor Piazzolla, in music. Several Quebec artists are in the spotlight this year: René Richard Cyr, Boucar Diouf, Angèle Dubeau, Chantal Harvey, John Heward, Jean-Pierre Larocque and Armand Vaillancourt.
‘This year again, many portraits of artists will be honoured, a unique opportunity to meet these artists through their own testimonies or the stories of relatives who tell the stories of the artists’ lives.’
Special screenings and events
Carte blanche du Louvre (Carte blanche of the Louvre)
Presentation in Montreal and Quebec City
Pascale Raynaud, in charge of film programming and the collection of films on art at the Louvre Museum, will be guest programmer as part of a Carte Blanche offerte au Musée du Louvre. Seven movies will be spotlighted: À quoi pense Madame Manet (sur son canapé bleu) (What does Madame Manet on her blue sofa), the last work of the former critic at Cahiers du cinéma, Hervé Le Roux, who died in 2017. Martin Fraudreau‘s Delacroix offers a step-by-step immersion in the emotions and tensions that run through and animate the work and the man; Être là (To be there) by Joële Van Effenterre, who brings to life the daily life of a model, from workshop to workshop through a diary of intimate creation that meticulously describes the singular experience of posing nude for the beauty of art.
L’Esprit Le Corbusier (Le Corbusier’s Spirit) by director Gilles Coudert, who, fascinated since his early childhood by the work of Le Corbusier, set out in search of artists who, like him, were influenced by the work of the famous architect; Tom Fassaert‘s La Visite – La Philharmonie de Paris (The Visit – Paris Philharmony), which reveals the majestic place through the eyes and ears of Arend Jan Talstra, a person with Down’s syndrome; La Visite – Le Musée du Quai Branly (The Visit – Quai Branly Museum) by Alexandr Kurznetsov, which chooses to foster a dialogue between Cécile, a dreamy young woman, and Marie, a sculptor who works in a studio and has participated in numerous exhibitions about life, culture and ourselves; and Le Collectionneur (The Collector) by Thomas Lévy-Lasne, who films Émilien, a young figurative painter, welcomed by a great art collector who is about to move to Hong Kong.
FIFA-MOMENTA Event | Dazibao Image Biennale
Wednesday, March 20 and Thursday, March 21, 6pm
Presentation of in præsentia/in absentia: Montreal filmmaker and artist of Belgian-Syrian origin Émilie Serri presents a selection of videos and short films developed around issues of incarnation and disembodiment of the body through digital media. It brings together 11 artists from Montreal and Toronto who, in their own way, make it possible to consider simultaneous attendance and absence.
Tribute to the 40th Anniversary of the Canadian Centre for Architecture
Théâtre Paul-Desmarais, CCA
Sunday, March 24, 3pm
Screening of Rêveuses de villes by Canadian director Joseph Hillel. Portrait of architects Phyllis Lambert, Blanche Lemco van Ginkel, Cornelia Hahn Oberlander and Denise Scott Brown. In the aftermath of the Second World War, few women had access to the very male profession of architect. Their journey is both that of women in modern society and that of architects in a world in constant transformation. The film presentation will be followed by a talk with Phyllis Lambert, Founding Director Emeritus of the CCA
NOWNESS
FIFA gives NOWNESS carte blanche through a selection of previously unpublished films. Launched in 2010, this platform is considered an essential source of inspiration and influence in the fields of art, design, fashion, beauty, music, gastronomy and travel. Among the selection of videos screened, Rubberband Color Trilogy will be presented in the grand premiere.
Other Events
Projection Art and Science in collaboration with UQÀM
Pavillon Cœur des Sciences, Agora Hydro-Québec
Wednesday, March 20, 6pm
Screening of the film More Human Than Human. Director Tommy Pallotta wonders about the obsolescence of his profession as a designer in a future society where robots will be entirely willing to replace humans. The film presentation will be followed by a question and answer session with an invited expert.
Screening of Dragonfly of Chicoutimi
Pavillon Cœur des Sciences, Agora Hydro-Québec
Sunday, March 24, 12:30 pm
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Centre du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui, FIFA is screening the recording of Larry Tremblay‘s The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi, which was a real thunderclap when it was first created in 1997. Jean-Claude Coulbois will bring this milestone to life by presenting it to the FIFA for the FIFA! The screening will be followed by a meeting with relatives of the Dragonfly.
Tribute to Méliès
Cinéma J.A de Sève, Concordia University
Sunday, March 24, 2019, 6:30 pm
In partnership with the Cinéclub Film Society, two documentaries on one of the most important filmmakers in the history of art, Georges Méliès (1968) by Claude Leroy, followed by Le Grand Méliès (1952) by Georges Franju, will be presented. The session will be presented by Philippe Spurrell, historian and president of the Cinéclub Film Society.
Practical information
Ticket office
Tickets on sale now online on the FIFA website www.artfifa.com
On-site, the ticket office opens one hour before the start of the sessions:
At the Festival Headquarters
Pavillon Coeur des Sciences, Agora Hydro-Québec
175 President Kennedy Avenue, Montreal
At La Vitrine culturelle
2 St.Catherine Street East, Montreal
(514) 285-4545 #1.
Single ticket
Regular: $12.50 / 60 years and over: $11.00 / 30 years and under: $9.00
Book of 6 sessions
Regular: $62.50 / 60 years and over: $55.00 / 30 years and under: $45.00
FIFA Passport
Regular 120.00 / (60 and over) $95.00 / (30 and less) $85.00
Follow the festival online
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Twitter @ARTFIFA
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Images: courtesy of FIFA
Read also: Other articles about cinema
The Festival International du Film sur l’Art (FIFA) is dedicated to the promotion and international influence of film on art and media arts. For more than 35 years, it has offered an annual event in March, which provides an opportunity to discover the latest documentaries on art, in addition to a selection of interactive works and virtual reality. Through its various activities, FIFA is committed to increasing public knowledge and appreciation of art, promoting the work of artists working in the fields of film, video and visual arts, and encouraging the production and distribution of films in the arts.www.artfifa.com
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